Thinking of all those people who tried to cross the border, including probably my family as well as I come from Berlin Germany we had family in the Eastern family in the west..

On This Day: The First Person Shot at the Berlin Wall

On August 24, 1961—just 11 days after East Germany sealed the border—24-year-old Günter Litfin attempted to escape from East to West Berlin.

Litfin made his way through the grounds near the Charité and jumped into the Humboldthafen, hoping to swim the final stretch to West Berlin. East German transport police spotted him, fired warning shots, and then opened fire as he continued swimming.

He was struck in the back of the head, only a short distance from the West Berlin shore. Hundreds of West Berliners gathered on the opposite bank as his body was recovered several hours later.

Günter Litfin became the first person to be deliberately shot and killed while attempting to escape across the Berlin Wall—a grim indication of how far the East German regime was prepared to go to stop people from leaving.